Figure 2.

Physical and chemical variables of the epipelagic layer. Average values (+sd) for the two macro-areas (coastal TNB, upper panels, and offshore RS, lower panels), see text for details related to the sub-areas. (A,D): temperature (°C), the thin vertical line denotes the T value (−1.8 °C) indicated as the lower limit for Antarctic surface waters (AASW) [36]; (B,E): salinity, the thin vertical line denotes the S value indicated as the higher limit for surface waters in TNB (34.60) [5] and in RS (34.50) [36]; (C,F): dissolved oxygen concentration (mg L⁻¹). Many depths were measured for physical-chemical parameters, we only reported four points for similarity with other figures.